Despite the middling success of the Golden State Warriors over the past three seasons, the truth of the matter is that we are still talking about a team that has only made the playoffs once in the past fifteen years.  That is not just a bad record, but an amazingly bad record, especially when considering the NBA, like the NHL, basically lets everyone into the playoffs. The reality is that the Warriors aren't just your run-of-the-mill bad franchise but competing with other bad franchises as being the worst franchise in sports.  We’re talking Pittsburgh Pirates bad.  We're talking LA Clippers bad.  We're even talking…gulp…Oakland Raiders bad.

In discussing the latest front-office shakeup, fingers have been pointing this way and that way but ultimately, the finger has to be pointed at the Man in Charge, one Chris Cohan, the Owner of the team for the past fifteen years. In fact, the Warriors were actually a playoff contender when he took over but stopped being so the moment he did so.  The question that should be asked then, is why is Cohan such a God-awful Owner?

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Oakland AthleticsAlright, so here's a rumor going on in the deep dark parts of the web I have a hard time believing. Steven Soderbergh, the famed and respected Hollywood director/producer is apparently working on a film version of Billy Beane's guide to budget baseball Moneyball, written by Michael Lewis. Those who follow the A's know they have to find bargain players before they get noticed and their price explodes and they play for the Yankees. This is the essence of Moneyball: The Art of Winning in an Unfair Game. Do not chase big name players, chase guys who get on base. Doesn't seem like much of a movie story to me, but hey, I don't own a studio for good reason. Apparently the story will follow Beane as he builds a contender out of nothing. If the movie news isn't big enough, guess who might be playing Beane? BRAD "The Ultimate Sex Symbol" PITT!

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Friday: Blue Jays 3-5 Athletics
Saturday: Blue Jays 4-6 Athletics
Sunday: Blue Jays 5-0 Athletics

So, another three game weekend series that began encouragingly, but ended in disappointment. It could have been even worse, too, but for a single five run breakout inning in the Friday night matchup, followed by another tremendous bullpen performance. Jason Giambi hit a couple of home runs on Saturday afternoon to make keep the crowd involved, and make the scores respectable, but aside from that, there wasn’t a whole lot to enjoy.

The A’s have two days off this week, so hopefully they can regroup and try to find the right combination that will make things work better for them. Oddly enough, two thirds of the equation – average, but not great starting pitching and reliance on a strong bullpen are working, but the third, and possibly most important – the offense actually putting runs on the board – is sadly absent.

Anyway, here are some highlights, such as they were, from the series.

The Good


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Wednesday: Rangers 3-2 Athletics
Thursday: Rangers 4-9 Athletics

Wednesday was a sport start from Dan Giese, and a decent one at that, giving up three runs in 5 2/3 innings of work. The A’s offense couldn’t back him up, though, and they ultimately went down. Context aside, this felt just like a run of the mill loss, the type a team will have forty times a season. In context, however, it was a bit of a sickener – a bad team, again finding a way to lose.

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The web has exploded today with the news of Dodgers slugger Manny Ramirez testing positive for performance enhancing drugs and his shiny new 50 game suspension, roughly $9 million worth of bench time. Fantasy baseball owners across the nation are either traumatized or sending their Manny having competitors stinging emails about the prospects of the rest of the season. Another club laughing hard is the San Francisco Giants, who were a paper's width away from signing the big muscle. Giants fans, who have been endlessly disappointed with their front office management over the last few years, have cause to dance in the streets. Not only did their big signing error just do an about face, but their much hated rivals are now paying one of baseball's best to ride the pine for 50 games, almost one-third of the entire season. Musclehead tattle-tale Jose Canseco recently outed Manny, even going so far as to put odds on his conjecture.  Canseco put the probability at 90 percent that Manny was juiced. Jose's mouth is like the Oracle at Delphi, don't question the juicing knowledge of the juiciest juicer ever.

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Monday: Angels 5 – 2 Athletics
Tuesday: Angels 5 – 3 Athletics

Oh God. When will it end? If the last series against the Mariners was a real shot to the heart, this one put the A’s season into the emergency ward and onto life support. It wasn’t so much as the losing that was the problem here, but more the weary predictability of it. In the first game, Brett Anderson hadn’t fully recovered from his blister, but was sent out to pitch anyway, and he gave up five runs in his 4.2 innings of work. In the second, Dallas Braden pitched superbly, but was undone by a series of lucky infield hits and fielding errors. Why wasn’t Jack Hannahan at third, you’ve got to ask?

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Friday: Athletics: 7-8 Mariners

Saturday:Athletics 3-2 Mariners

Sunday: Athletics 7-8 Mariners

What a series. What a blow. Twice, the A's came within an out of winning the game, and twice, it fell apart for them. The one game that their offence didn't give them a hatful of runs to play with, the pitching staff, with a somewhat foruitous performance, and another dominant two innings from Andrew Bailey stepped up and kept the Mariners quiet. If it was bad enough to lose the first game to a ninth inning walk off knock, to go down in fifteen innings on Sunday was a real knife in the heart, especially given the fact that they put up three runs in the top of the 13th.... which they promptly gave right back.

Sigh.

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San Jose Stealth celebrate after a goal against the Portland Lumberjax. Courtesy San Jose Stealth.Well, there is one Bay Area team that is advancing in the playoffs. The San Jose Stealth professional lacrosse team recently laid the smackdown on the Portland Lumberjax 20-16 to advance to the second round of the National Lacrosse League playoffs. Sure, maybe its little consolation in the wake of the Warriors horrific season, the Sharks calamitous playoff exit, the A’s apparent continued futility, the Giants tradition of losing and the Raiders, uh… alternative draft experience. The 49ers at least look to be on the upswing. But for now, if you want to see Bay Area playoff success, maybe its time to tune into professional lacrosse. It is exciting to watch, they fight as much as in hockey, they run as fast as basketball players and they hit like football players. In the win 11 Stealth players scored to give the Stealth revenge for last season’s playoff exit at the hands of the Jax.

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Matt Holliday deserves a warm pat on the back for smashing his first home run of the season. A's fans had a long wait to watch their newly acquired star hit one long. It only took him 18 games to get it done, but hey, better late than never. The home run, hit to deep right center, gave the A's the extra run they needed to top the Texas Rangers. Holliday's bat was one of the treats A's fans had been looking forward to the entire off-season since they picked him up off the Colorado Rockies. In Colorado Holliday was a valued hitter, having smashed 25 homers last year and 70 in the two years before that. His trip to Oakland has been plagued by speculation about the friendliness of Coors Field toward power hitters and the fear on behalf of A's fans that he was picked up only to be dealt away again as part of Billy Beane's carousel of players coming and going and Beane's fear of big names and big salaries.

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Tuesday: Oakland A’s 4 – 5 Texas Rangers

Wednesday: Rain!

Thursday: A’s  4 – 2 Rangers

The A’s had an attack of injury-itis as five – five! Players went down in one game on Tuesday. Nomar Garciaparra and  Mark Ellis are now on the DL, both with thigh strains, Eric Chavez is now day to day with an unidentified arm injury (though, when is he not?), Brett Anderson has a blister, Santiago Casilla has… gawd, it’s too painful to write. In fact, just typing this has given me ankle-knack.

As for the actual baseball, the A’s lost a close one on Tuesday after a decent start from Anderson, who went five before having to leave, taking his lead with him. The bullpen gave it up, but, as they’ve been so nails this season, I guess they have to have a bad one now and then.

Wednesday, it rained, meaning the A’s could skip a Josh Outman loss; there’ll be a double header in Arlington at the end of May. I don’t think anyone is sad about this.

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